At least 200 people have been killed in Egypt in an attack on a mosque

Egyptian
army soldiers during clashes with supporters of the Muslim
Brotherhood and the ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in a
suburb of the capital, Cairo, on November 28,
2014.REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El
Ghany

Militants bombed a Sufi mosque and fired on worshippers
in the volatile Sinai Peninsula during Friday prayers.

At least 200 people were killed.

The attack appears to have been carried out by Egypt's
affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group.

EL-ARISH, Egypt — Militants attacked a crowded mosque during
Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula, settling off explosives,
spraying worshippers with gunfire, and killing at least 200
people in the deadliest ever attack on Egyptian civilians by
Islamic extremists.

The attack targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of
Islam's mystical movement, in the north Sinai town of Bir al-Abd.
Islamic militants, including the local affiliate of the Islamic
State terrorist group, consider Sufis heretics because of their
less literal interpretations of the faith.

The affiliate has been waging a stepped-up campaign of violence
in northern Sinai for years and has claimed deadly bombings on
churches in the capital, Cairo, and other cities, killing dozens
of Christians. It also is believed to have been behind the 2016
downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed 226.

But this was the first major militant attack on a Muslim mosque,
and the startling bloodshed eclipsed any past attacks of its
kind, even dating back to a previous Islamic militant insurgency
in the 1990s.

The militants opened fire from four off-road vehicles on
worshippers inside the mosque during the sermon, blocking off
escape routes from the area by blowing up cars and leaving the
burning wrecks blocking the roads, three police officers on the
scene said.

Victims, including some 130 wounded, were rushed to local
hospitals, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity because
they weren't authorized to brief reporters.

No one claimed responsibility immediately after the attack, but
ISIS has targeted Sufis several times in the area in the past,
notably beheading a leading Sufi religious figure, the Sheikh
Suleiman Abu Heraz, last year and posting photos of the killing
online.

"Horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and
defenseless worshipers in Egypt," President Donald Trump tweeted after the attack. "The world cannot
tolerate terrorism, we must defeat them militarily and discredit
the extremist ideology that forms the basis of their existence!"

Images circulating on social media showed dozens of bloodied
bodies wrapped up in sheets laid across the mosque floor, while
others showed dozens of relatives lining up outside the hospital
as ambulances raced back and forth.

Via Google
Maps

Ashraf el-Hefny, a resident, said many of the victims were
workers at a nearby salt firm who had come for Friday services at
the mosque, which had contained some 300 worshipers.

"Local people brought the wounded to hospital on their own cars
and trucks," he said by telephone.

Citing "official sources," Egypt's state news agency reported the
casualty toll, revising it upward several times after the
officials' initial reports.

Cairo's international airport boosted security after the attack,
with more troopers and forces seen patrolling passenger halls,
conducting searches, and manning checkpoints at airport
approaches.

State condolences poured in for Egypt, including messages from
Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the US, Russia, France, and
Britain condemning the violence.

Security forces have been battling militants in northern Sinai
for years, but attacks have focused on military and police assets
— though assassinations of people whom ISIS considers government
spies or religious heretics are not uncommon.

Hundreds of soldiers and militants have been killed in the
conflict, though exact numbers are unclear, as journalists and
independent investigators are barred from the area.

Egypt is also facing an increasing number of attacks by militants
in its Western Desert, including one last month that killed 16
police, according to an official tally issued by the Interior
Ministry. Security officials have told journalists that dozens
more, including high-ranking counterterrorism officers, perished
in the October 20 attack some 135 kilometers (84 miles) southwest
of Cairo.